In 1970's Black locust(Robinia pseudoacacia) had been widely planted Korea as an important forest greening species for erosion control afforestation. Since 2000, however, the tree's leaf-yellowing symptom has often been observed at a limited region and then spreaded out over the country in 2006. This study was conducted to study soil physiochemical properties of black locust stands with and without the leaf-yellowing symptom in Osan, Gyeonggi province. Most of soils in sampling sites were mostly slightly eroded, dry, and moderately dry. Available soil depth(16cm) and total soil depth(26cm) in leaf-yellowing (LY) site were significantly lower than in non leaf-yellowing (Non-LY) site's soil depths which were 30cm and 56cm, respectively. And solid phase proportion and bulk density in soils were lower in LY site than in non-LY site soils, while soil liquid phase proportion was also low. It could reflect that LY site soils might have a lower air and moisture movement in the rhizosphere of black locust stand compared with non-LY site soils. Soil acidity in both sites was very strong acid, soil pH (4.42) of LY site was slightly lower than non-LY site's (pH 4.54). Content of available phosphorous, exchangeable and and percent base saturation were less than LY site. These results indicated that soil physiochemical condition in LY site, more deteriorated than non-LY site, should adversely affect the retention and supply capacity of soil nutrients and moisture. Therefore the black locust may be more sensitive to other environmental stresses.

Effect of soil salinity variation on the growth of barley, rye and oat was studied at the Hwaong, Iweon and Yeongsangang reclaimed lands in the western seaside of Korea. Soil salinity variation and soil EC were very high for crops to be killed or to be brought serious growth retardation during the growing season at the Iweon and Hwaong reclaimed lands, but fully low not to bring growth retardation at the Yeongsangang reclaimed land. Relation between soil salinity and crop growth and yield was well expressed as logarithmic function. Surface soil EC to reach at 50% of seed-emergence reduction was estimated for barley and for rye and oat by logarithmic function. In addition, surface soil EC to reach at 50% of grain yield reduction to the best growth in the experimental site was estimated for barley, for rye and for oat, while soil EC to reach at 50% of dry matter reduction was estimated for barley, for rye and for oat by logarithmic function. Grain yield of barley, rye and oat was 395, 164 and in the Yeongsangang reclaimed lands naturally controlled below condition of of soil EC, but no harvest was obtained in the Hwaong and Iweon reclaimed land because of high salinity more than in maximum soil EC during growing period. Consequentially, it was concluded that soil salinity must be controlled below for good growth and high yield of winter barley, rye and oat in the reclaimed land in Korea.

Rhodiola rosea L., a traditional medicinal plant in Eastern Asia, is widely used by astronauts, divers and mountaineers to improve their stress resistance. This experiment was conducted to investigate the optimum application rates of phosphate and potassium under the forcing cultivation for high-quality Rhodiola rosea L. production. The application rate of of phosphate and of potassium showed the highest yield of Rhodiola rosea L. root. There was no significant difference between the application rates of phosphate or potassium fertilizer and the content of salidroside.

An attempt was made to establish the suitability classes of lands for the cultivation of ginseng(Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer). For this study, the relationships between various soil characteristics and ginseng yields were investigated on altogether 450 ginseng fields (150 sites in paddy and 300 sites in upland), across Kangwon, Kyunggi, Chungbug, Chungnam, Jonbug and Kyungbug Provinces, where ginseng is widely cultivated. In the paddy fields, most influential properties of soil on the ginseng yields was found to be the drainage class. Texture of surface soil and available soil depths affected the ginseng yields to some extents. However, the topography, slope, and the gravel content were found not to affect the ginseng yields. In the uplands, the texture of surface soil was most influential and the topography, slope, and occurrence depth of hard-pan were least influential on the performance of the crop. Making use of multiple regression, by SAS, the contribution of soil morphological and physical properties such as, topography, surface soil texture, drainage class, slope, available soil depth, gravel content, and appearance depth of hard-pan, for the suitability of land for ginseng cultivation was analyzed. Based on the results of above analysis, adding up all of the suitability indices, land suitability classes for ginseng cultivation were proposed. On top of this, taking the weather conditions into consideration, suitability of land for ginseng cultivation was established in paddy field and in uplands. As an example, maps showing the distribution of suitable land for ginseng cultivation were drawn, adopting the land suitability classes obtained through current study, soil map, climate map, and GIS information, for Eumsung County, Chungbug Province. Making use of the information on the land suitability for ginseng cultivation obtained from current study, the suitability of lands currently under cultivation of ginseng was investigated. The results indicate that 74.0% of them in paddy field and 88.3% in upland are "highly suitable" and "suitable".

Nitrogen balance in the regional scale which was calculated the difference between nitrogen input and output was estimated to assess the impact of rice cultivation on water environment. Nitrogen balances in Gyeonggi province, where nitrogen concentration in irrigation water was high and in Chungnam province, where nitrogen absorbtion by rice was high, were -5.4 and -8.3 kg , respectively. Nitrogen balances of paddy field in Gangwon province, where nitrogen output was small and irrigation water was clean, and in Gyeongnam province, where organic matter content of soil was high and rice yield was low, were 4.9 and , respectively. Average nitrogen balance and total nitrogen absorption of paddy field in Korea were estimated to and , respectively. When the nitrogen concentration in irrigation water was increased by , nitrogen balance of rice paddy changed by . Also, when nitrogen fertilizer applied was decreased from 110 to and the same harvest was maintained, the nitrogen absorption by rice paddy from irrigation water was estimated to increase by 10,600 Mg per year in Korea. However, in cases, the harvest was reduced to either 90% or 85%, nitrogen balances were changed from -11.7 to -2.3 and , respectively. These results suggest that the reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use may not always lead to a negative nitrogen balance and sustainable agriculture can achieve by not cutting down the use of fertilizer only but by reduction of fertilizer application concurrently by maintenance of harvest and by utilization of environmental characteristics such as nutrient contents in irrigation water and soils.

Vegetation distribution and soil salinity were surveyed on the conservation plot in the Daeho reclaimed tidal land, in where the plants species distribution was more various than a periodically inundated tidal flat and the early stage of reclamation. According to the soil salinity where the vegetation patches were occurred, the mono patches of Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima, and Suaeda glauca were distributed in the average range of 31.05 dS/m in soil salinity, the mixed patches of them were distributed in the average range of 42.75 dS/m. Therefore, Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima, and Suaeda glauca showed strong salt tolerance. The mono patches of Aster tripolium, Sonchus brachyotus, and Scirpus planiculm were distributed in the range of 11.73 dS/m in soil salinity, and the mixed patches were distributed in the average range of 9.43 dS/m. Therefore Aster tripolium, Sonchus brachyotus, and Scirpus planiculmis showed moderate salt tolerance. The mono patches of Imperata cylindrica, Trifolium pratense, Miscanthus sinensis, Setaria viridis, and Trisetum bifidum were distributed in the range of 2.42 dS/m in soil salinity. These species showed characteristics of glycophytes with weak salt tolerance. The distribution of vegetation patches was influenced by the soil salinity as pioneer halophytes patches occurred at higher soil salinity zone than facultative halophytes patches, glycophytes patches occurred at lower soil salinity zone than facultative halophytes. These results suggested that occurrence of plant species and plant distribution type might be useful index to evaluate the soil salinity and desalinization in the reclaimed land of the midwest coastal area of Korea.

In order to identify the effect of soil salinity on saturated hydraulic conductivity in reclaimed paddy soils, we established the soil columns uniformly packed with soils collected at every 20 cm up to 60 cm from the reclaimed paddy area with high and low salinity which has been cultivated rice plants for the last 30 years. The soil textures were sandy loam and loamy sand for high-salinity and low-salinity topsoils, respectively. For high-salinity and low-salinity soils the ECes were ranged from 25.2 to and 3.0 to while the ESPs were ranged from 7.70 to 20.84 % and from 5.12 to 11.33 %, respectively. The bulk densities of the soil columns were adjusted to . The results of the soil column experiments shows that the stabilized saturated hydraulic conductivity of low-salinity soil was at the topsoil while there were little water flow at the bottom of the soil columns packed with high-salinity soils. After removal of ions with from the high-salinity soil, Ksat of the saline soil was drastically increased to . Soil columns of high-salinity topsoil treated with four different concentration of NaCl influent after removal of soluble and exchangeable cations with show Ksat in the range of and the Ksat slightly decreased as the concentration of NaCl influent was increasing. Conclusively, we could assume that can be significantly contributed to the saturated hydraulic conductivity in newly reclaimed sandy soil.

Carbon fixation and density of crops are important to estimate carbon uptake or emission by agricultural production activities and to establish life cycle inventory of crops for assessment of climate change impact. In this study, regional carbon fixation and density in each part of 14 crops, harvest index, and ratio of aboveground to underground were investigated to estimate biomass of 14 crops in Korea by using agricultural statistics data. Biomass yield of potato was , which was the highest, and those of rice, sweet potato, and garlic were , , and respectively. Biomass yield of Green onion was the lowest as . Carbon density of 14 crops were in the order of potato (), rice (), sweet potato (), rape () and garlic (). Regional distribution of carbon contents for each crop mapped revealed that carbon fixation of rice, soybean, sesame, garlic, and green onion were the highest in Jeonnam province, barley, red pepper, and watermelon in Gyeongnam, perilla in Chungnam, peanut in Gyeongbuk, rape and carrot in Jeju, sweet potato in Gyeonggi, potato in Gangwon. The results can be applied for assessing life cycle inventory of crops and crop productivity using remotely sensed data.

An attempt was made to provide the most resonable fertilizer recommendation for carrot crop based on soil analytical data and yield response to the NPK fertilizers, which was obtained from field experiments on 2003 in highland, 850 meters above the sea level. Optimum times of N, P, K application to current application methods based on soil test were 0.75-0.50-0.50 for carrot. The adjusted N, P, K recommendation models of highland soil were made by adding the application times to past application methods which were based on chemical properties of soil. The revised models for fertilizer application were recommended to decrease the amount of N-P-K by 25-50-50% for carrot in highland. In application to total cultivation area, 135ha for carrot, saving amounts of NPK fertilizers with these adjusted recommendation in comparison with past application levels will be 23.0 tons for carrot. Using the optimal application amounts for carrot, we will can reduce agricultural pollution without affecting crop yields.

This study was conducted to reclassify Bugog series based on the second edition of Soil Taxonomy : A Basic System of Soil Classification for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys. Morphological properties of typifying pedon of Bugog series were investigated and physico-chemical properties were analyzed according to Soil Survey Laboratory Methods Manual. The typifying pedon of Bugog series has strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) loam Ap horizon (0~22 cm), brown (7.5YR 4/4) clay loam BAt horizon (22~41 cm), strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) silty clay loam Bt1 horizon (41~59 cm), strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) silty clay loam Bt2 horizon (59~78 cm), brown (7.5YR 4/4) silty clay loam Btx1 horizon(78~90 cm), and brown (7.5YR 4/4) Btx2 horizon(90~160 cm). That occurs on swale foot slope in area of mainly granite gneiss, granite, and schist rock materials. The typifying pedon has an argillic horizon from a depth of 22 to more than 160 cm and a base saturation (sum of cations) of less than 35% at 75 cm below the upper boundary of the fragipan. That can be classified as Ultisol, not as Alfisol. The pedon has udic soil moisture regime, and can be classified as Udult. That has a fragipan with an upper boundary within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface, and keys out as Fragiudult. Also that meets the requirements of Typic Fragiudult. That has 18% to 35% clay at the particle-size control section, and has mesic soil temperature regime. Bugog series can be classified as fine silty, mixed, mesic family of Typic Fragiudults, not as fine loamy, mixed, mesic family of Typic Fragiudalfs.

This study was conducted to reclassify Yongheung series based on the second edition of Soil Taxonomy and to discuss the formation of Yongheung series in Jeju Island. Morphological properties of typifying pedon of Yongheung series were investigated and physico-chemical properties were analyzed according to Soil Survey Laboratory Methods Manual. The typifying pedon contains 3.2~3.4% oxalate extractable (Al + 1/2 Fe), less than 85% phosphate retention, and higher bulk density than . That can not be classified as Andisol. But it has an argillic horizon from a depth of 15 to 150 cm and a base saturation (sum of cations) of less than 35% at 125 cm below the upper boundary of the argillic horizon. That can be classified as Ultisol, not as Andisol or Alfisol. The typifying pedon has 0.9 % or more organic carbon in the upper 15 cm of the argillic horizon and accordingly, can be classified as Humult. It has a clay distribution in which the percentage of clay does not decrese from its maximum amount by 20% or more within a depth of 150 cm from the mineral soil surface, and keys out as Palehumult. Also that meets the requirements of Typic Palehumult. That has 35 % or more clay at the particle-size control section and has mesic soil temperature regime. Yongheung series can be classified as fine, mixed, thermic family of Typic Palehumults, not as fine, mixed, thermic family of Typic Hapludalfs. Most soils distributed in the southern coastal areas in Jeju island which have a humid climate are developed as Andisols. But Yongheung series distributed in this areas and derived from mainly trachyte, trachytic andesite, and volcanic ash are developed as Ultisols.

To evaluate the potential value of the major bioenergy crops which are wheat, canola, barley, corn, and sweet potato in Korea, we investigated the production of biomass and calorific value of crops, and also compared input and output factors among bioenergy crops during the cultivation period. There was difference between the biomass values in Agricultural and Forestry statistical yearbook(2006) and the one investigated in this experiment, also there was difference in crops and in species. Among the crops investigated, sweet potato(Jinhongmi, Yulmi) was shown the highest amount of biomass production and corn(Gangdaok) was shown the highest amount of the total biomass which is the total aboveground biomass at harvest. Oilseed canola which is presently a major source of bio-diesel had highest calorific value as . Wheat and corn grains which are source of bio-ethanol were in the range of . Gangdaok(Corn) produce the highest total calorific value in unit cultivating area among the crops as . Corn was shown that the input and output factors were the highest level among bioenergy crops during cultivation period. Sweet potato also was shown that output factor was the highest level though its input factors were average level. It is needed to be investigated more crops for collecting the higher potential value of bioenergy production further considering small land area and its effective utilization in Korea.

Effect of drip irrigation on soil salinity control and growth of vegetable crops was studied in the three reclaimed lands of Korea in 2007. Drip irrigation was done one or two times per month for reduction of salt stress by using vinyl hose with tiny holes laid on ridge surface under black plastic film mulch during growing season of cabbage and chinese cabbage. It was observed that drip irrigation was generally effective to soil salinity control, but soil salinity variation of some place was not fully solved to lower down under level of free salt stress. It is also considered that high salinity of runoff water spilled out from cultivation ridge plays another key role for soil salinity management. Consequentially, this soil salinity variation might be one of factors brought low average yield and low commercial ratio of agricultural products. Relation between soil salinity and head growth of cabbage and chinese cabbage was well expressed as logarithmic function. Surface soil EC to reach at 50% of growth reduction to the heaviest head can be estimated was for cabbage and for chinese cabbage transplanted at optimum season.

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of temperature on soil microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and PLFA content in the volcanic(VAS) and the non-volcanic ash soil(NVAS). The soils were treated with organic materials such as organic fertilizer pelleted(OFPL), organic fertilizer powdered(OFPD), pig manure compost(PMC), and food waste compost(FWC). Two grams of organic materials were well mixed with 30g of dried volcanic and non-volcanic ash soil(< 2 mm) with 50% of soil moisture content. And the soils were incubated at 10, 20, in incubator. Soils were analysed on the incubation times as followed; soil pH, total nitrogen, organic matter(at 75, 150, 270 days), microbial biomass C and PLFA (at 75, 270 days), microbial biomass N and soil enzyme(at 150, 270 days). pH values of soils treated with PMC and FWC had no changes on soil type, and incubation temperature. However, the pH was increased with temperature in the soils treated with OFPL. The changes in NVAS was higher than in VAS. Soil microbial biomass C content were high in the condition of high temperature and organic fertilizers treatment in VAS. But the contents were gradually decreased with incubation period in both NVAS and VAS. Soil microbial biomass N was high in NVAS treated with organic fertilizers and in VBS treated with PMC and FWC. PLFA content was higher in NVBS than in VBS at 75 days but showed high in VBS at 270 days. Urease activity of NVBS treated with OFPL showed (75.0)> (16.3)> () at 150 days. It were decreased gradually high temperature and time passes. And it showed high at in VBS. Glucosidase activity was higher in NVBS than in VBS. Correlation coefficient of between soil microbial biomass C and microbial activity indicators showed that PLFA was high significantly at in NVBS and was in VBS. Soil microbial activities showed differences in the relative sensitivities of soil type and soil temperature.

The primary goal of this research was to develop an optimized analytical procedure for soil analysis based on ion-selective microelectrodes for agricultural purposes, which can perform on-site measurement of various ions in soil easily and rapidly. For the simple and rapid on-site diagnosis, an analysis of soil chemicals was performed employing a multicomponent-in-situ-extractant and an evaluation of ionselective microelectrodes were conducted through the regressive correlation method with a standard analytical approach widely employed in this area. Examination of sensor responses between various soil nutrient extractants revealed that 0.01M HCl and 1M LiCl provided the most ideal Nernstian response. However, 1M LiCl deteriorated the selective response for analytes due to high concentration (1M) of lithium cation. Thus, employing either 0.1M HCl as an extractant followed by 10 times dilution, or 0.01M HCl as an extractant without further dilution was chosen as the optimal extractant composition. A study of regressive correlation between results from ion-selective microelectrodes and those from the standard analytical procedure showed that analyses of , , , and showed the excellent consistency between two methods. However, the response for suffered the severe interference from . In addition, the selectivity for over was not sufficient enough since available ionophores developed so far do not provide such a high selectivity for . Therefore, as an agricultural on-site diagnostic instrument, the device in development requires further research on analysis in the soil sample, development of -selective ionophore, and more detailed study focused on potassium, one of the most important plant nutrients.

This study focused on establishing prediction models using visible-near infrared spectrum to simultaneously detect multiple components of soils and enhancing the performance quality by suitably transformed input spectra and classification of soil spectral types for prediction model input. The continuum-removed spectra showed significant result for all cases in terms of soil properties and classified or bulk predictions. The prediction model using classified soil spectra at an absorption peak area around 500nm and 950nm efficiently indicating soil color showed slightly better performance. Especially, Ca and CEC were well estimated by the classified prediction model at > 0.8. For organic carbon, both classified and bulk prediction model had a good performance with > 0.8 and RPD> 2. This prediction model may be applied in global soil mapping, soil classification, and remote sensing data analysis.